Case: Analytics in Decision Making After completing your college degree you go to work for an energy You could then sell these parts to end customers by taking advan- generation company. For the last two years you have been relo- tage of the margin while still being competitive. Due to your prox- cated to a remote town in the Midwest for a special project. Your imity to the end customers, you are confident you can offer a better entrepreneurial instincts have led you to explore problems faced service compared to existing market players. Going ahead with this by farmers in the region. One of the problems you have uncovered plan will allow you to expand your business beyond just the soft- is the difficulty in finding replacements for farm equipment parts. ware application and to generate more revenue. This way, you will Although most farmers are able to identify which equipment part be able to quit your job and become a full-time entrepreneur. has developed a problem, it is difficult for them to arrive at the technical specifications of the part in order to buy a replacement Case Questions Before going ahead with this plan, you need to online answer the following: To address this issue, you have developed an analytics app 1. Should you have in-house warehousing and logistics for with your friend Nerd. By using this app, farmers can simply take a photo of the faulty part and the app generates all the associated handling those 50 parts, or should you outsource these func- technical specifications. The app also generates pricing informa- tions? What data analytics do you need to consider? What qualitative factors should you consider? tion from different websites and allows farmers to complete their purchases. After 3 months of beta testing, you are contemplating 2. If you decide to outsource, will you partner with one ware- a key business decision. housing and logistics provider for the entire region or will After analyzing the results of beta testing, you have noticed you engage in multiple partnerships? Why? that 60 percent of sales were generated by 50 equipment parts. You 3. If you decide against outsourcing, what techniques and are thinking that if you could buy or rent a warehouse, you could which types of data will you use to ensure efficient and effec- stock these 50 parts by buying them from manufacturers in bulk. tive warehousing and logistics operations